The Savior’s Incredible Love

Knowing that God knows

The Shroud of Turin, Lourdes, Fatima, and other manifestations of God provide us with overpowering evidence that we have an eternal loving God. Our common sense, however, and in spite of our philosophical musings and our most airtight logic, tells us that this can’t be possible because evil and suffering could not co-exist with an eternal loving God. Consequently, based upon our own personal pain and suffering, as well as the suffering we see in others, we can be led to the conclusion that the God of Christian theology must be the product of wishful thinking. Alternatively, we speculate that if there is a God he can only be the aloof deist watchmaker with no interest in our lives. This would be the same as no God.

If only we knew that God understands the horror of fear, pain, suffering, and despair, then perhaps we could make sense of this apparent dilemma. He does, and the intense suffering of Jesus during the Passion confirms this with profound certainty.

Jesus Christ and the Passion

The Bible offers us an understated description of what happened on that Holy Friday 2,000 years ago. It merely says that Jesus was scourged, mocked, beaten, crowned with thorns, taunted, and crucified. Finally, a spear was run into his side to confirm he was in fact dead. While all of this sounds horrible beyond description (and it is) the reality of the evil and pain which befell Jesus is infinitely greater.

The mother of Jesus is often forgotten when we consider his suffering. Yet, her suffering and anguish must have been at least equal to that experienced by Jesus, and you can be sure Jesus knew her suffering. We can better understand Mary’s agony and live the Passion of Christ more deeply if we make one adjustment to the scenes of pure brutality in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Do you have a six-year-old son or grandson? Perhaps an eight-year-old or ten-year-old son or daughter, grandchild, brother or sister? Every now and then when you visualize Jesus being whipped, spat upon, beaten, or suffering through any of the events on that first Good Friday, try substituting your loved little boy or girl in the place of Jesus. It is impossible because seeing your loved little innocent one terrorized and in agony being whipped or nailed to a cross takes the definitions of ‘gut-wrenching’ and ‘distress’ to new levels. The mind automatically rejects such an attempt to relive the Passion because the recollection is just too painful and agonizing to consider. Mary saw and lived those events of her cherished child being tortured and executed. Jesus knew her despair and anguish. His suffering wasn’t limited to his physical and spiritual pain. As a loving son, the torture experienced by his mother became his suffering.

To understand our Saviors’ love, it is important that we witness the brutality of Jesus’ sufferings. What follows is a brief description of that nightmare.

The scourging

Jesus would have been repeatedly lashed (probably 39 times, and possibly even more) by whips tipped with iron balls or sheep bones which would have cut into his skin and rip into the underlying muscles. The Roman scourging of Jesus was a bloody and painful endeavor, which we should never forget. The Alpha and Omega suffered intensely. In our artistic depictions, we can put a loin cloth on Jesus to make him more presentable, but he was in fact stripped naked. We can show a bloodless passion and crucifixion. By doing so, however, we dishonor the immensity of his sacrifice.

The crown of thorns

Think about how the soldiers maliciously and gleefully put a wreath of long sharp thorns in the form of a hemispheric crown on Jesus’ head. Visualize and feel the pain and anguish suffered by Jesus as the soldiers pressed the thorns into his head and repeatedly strike him. Jesus’ physical pain would have exponentially intensified as the minutes and hours dragged on.

Mocking and degradation

Degradation and insult were heaped upon Jesus. They tore off his garments and arrayed him in a purple robe. They mocked him, beat him and spat upon him. They placed a reed in his hand as a scepter and continued their mocking and ridicule. Jesus’ excruciating pain must have become even more hideous as the taunting and beatings continued unabated. They even whipped him with the reed they had placed in his hand. They beat this imposter creator and king of the universe with his own scepter!

Behold the man

The torment and pain Jesus suffered before he began his agonizing climb to Calvary continued. He was brought before the crowds clothed in the purple robe, adorned with a crown of thorns, spittle on his face, blood oozing from his uncountable stripes and wounds, wrapped in intense pain and Pilate said, “Behold the man!” as if to say, “Look at this miserable thing! Doesn’t this satisfy you?” The crowd responded by demanding crucifixion, and Jesus is led away to the cross. The mother of our Lord watches; his Apostles watch; and his friends watch. They are all helpless. Jesus is the Son of God and he knowingly accepted this torment and the imminent excruciating pain, with patience, forgiveness and love.

Abandoned

Except for his mother, John and a few others, all his relatives and followers deserted him, a fact Jesus would have known as evidenced by his prophecy that Peter would deny him three times.

The Way of the Cross

The Gospels provide almost no detail regarding Jesus carrying the cross to Golgotha (see Matthew 27:31-32; Mark 15:20-22; Luke 23:26; and John 19:14). Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Simon of Cyrene was pressed into helping Jesus carry his cross. Mark goes one step further and tells us that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. John makes no mention of Simon. That’s it!

While the Gospels provide little detail, the Shroud of Turin tells us much more. The image on the Shroud shows the agonizing pain Jesus would have suffered as he journeyed to Golgotha dragging the cross from which he would hang. The academicians Matteo Bevilacqua, Giulio Fanti and Michele D’Arienzo conducted a detailed study of the man on the Shroud and the trauma he suffered. Their paper, “New Light on the Sufferings and the Burial of the Turin Shroud Man,” appears in the May 19, 2017 issue of Peertechz, a peer-reviewed platform of scientific articles. The physical damage to the man on the Shroud confirms the following account of the Way of the Cross:

1.  Jesus, weakened from the trauma and blood loss from the scourging, would have collapsed under the weight of the cross (approximately 140 lbs). He fell forward and was severely injured when he fell to the ground.

2.  The cross would have crushed down upon his back between the neck and right shoulder as he fell, thereby dislocating his shoulder and paralyzing his right arm. This further caused the displacement of the head from the left side. The nerve tree running from his shoulder would have been violently stretched causing intensely severe and continuing pain.

3.  The fall explains why “the right shoulder is lower than the left by 10±5 degrees” and why the right eye is retracted or displaced in the eye socket.

4.  The pain would now have been extreme and Jesus would have completely lost the function of his right arm.

5.  The Roman soldiers now tried to have him carry the cross supported by his left shoulder, but he would have been unable to do so. His physical inability to carry the cross explains the biblical account of Simon being pressed into service.

We can easily visualize Jesus agonizingly struggling on the road to Calvary. Surely Mary must have waited for him as he approached. As the by-standers gathered around her, she would have listened in horror to the hate and calumny uttered against her son. The Romans probably led the procession, carrying nails, hammers, ropes and other requisite instruments to torture and kill Jesus. They would have passed by Mary, followed by Jesus, unrecognizable and covered with blood and wounds from head to foot, a crown of thorns piercing his head.

How can we measure the anguish Jesus must have felt when he saw his mother looking upon his bloodied, disfigured, and dying form? Can there be any more suffering than what Jesus endured as he made his way up the hill? Yes, and it’s called . . . .

Calvary

When he arrived at Calvary, nails were driven through his hands and feet to secure him to the cross. There he hung for six hours gasping for breath and in unspeakable pain. Finally, he died. Once again, the Shroud provides us with more detail.

1.  The nails were pounded through the wrists (or at least exited through the wrists), and not the palm of the hands as traditionally represented.

2.  The disappearance of the thumbs in the Shroud is linked to the trauma caused by the nailing.

3.  It appears that Jesus suffered a right ankle dislocation during nailing.

4.  One nail was driven through one foot and the other ankle to attach them to the cross. The aforementioned researchers concluded that there probably was first a 5” nail driven through one of the feet to act as a pilot hole, followed by a 10” nail pounded through the heel. Interestingly, the Roman Catholic Church believes there was one nail used to affix both feet, while the Orthodox believes there were two. It looks like they both are correct.

The pain and trauma suffered by Jesus as he hung on the cross are beyond our comprehension. Because of the (a) scourging, (b) his carrying the cross and the injuries he sustained as he struggled towards Calvary, (c) the crown of thorns pressed upon his head, (d) his dislocated ankle, and (e) the nails embedded in and through his wrists and feet, every slight movement of Jesus on the cross produced intense pain and trauma. To breath he would have to push his body down upon his ankles and feet fastened to the cross so as to lift his body up to allow passage of air into and out of his lungs.

This is the suffering of love. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, he declared with acts that can never be diluted his incredible love for man. He had said that no greater love can there be than to give one’s life for another. And that’s what he did.

Jesus understands your pain and suffering. He died for your sins. Don’t deny him.

Some websites and references

Footnotes and Attributions

Painting of Jesus bearing our sins retrieved from the art4god website.

Last modified July 29, 2019